first peony plant!

kz.bn

Hello! I planted a peony bulb a few weeks ago not expecting much but have just noticed a little seedling starting to appear  Its in quite a small pot and I don't want to put it in the ground as we will probably be moving in the next year and would be sad not to take it with me - should I be repotting this into quite a large pot for it to do well? Any tips on keeping it alive? I'm a bit of a novice so any help would be appreciated. 

BobTheGardener

It will be OK in a pot for a year or two, but may not flower until it gets planted into the ground.  I purposely plant new peony corms into 11 litre square pots for a year before putting them in the border as they seem to do better that way.  It's important that the top of the corm has no more than an inch (2.5cm) of soil/compost above it - if planted any deeper, it may refuse to flower.

kz.bn

BobTheGardener said:

It will be OK in a pot for a year or two, but may not flower until it gets planted into the ground.  I purposely plant new peony corms into 11 litre square pots for a year before putting them in the border as they seem to do better that way.  It's important that the top of the corm has no more than an inch (2.5cm) of soil/compost above it - if planted any deeper, it may refuse to flower.

Thank you! This pot is really small so I might transfer it to a larger one, I don't have anything as big as 11 litres though. 
I hope this one hasn't been planted too deep, I followed what was written on the pack so fingers crossed. Do you have any watering/feeding advice?

Fairygirl

That looks like a very small specimen so I wouldn't put it in anything bigger just now. It does look quite deep though. You could just scrape a little bit of the soil/compost away though, and take out the little weed growing there 
It won't need anything just now in terms of food, but just water when the compost is on the dry side. If you lift the pot up, you'll be able to tell by the weight too. Just keep it somewhere slightly sheltered so that it doesn't get exposed to any extremes of weather while it's establishing. 
You can  pot it on into a bigger pot and, give it some slow release food in late winter/early spring just to keep it going, or even in autumn if it grows a lot before then. It'll take a little while to get a good root system going though.  Make sure it isn't sitting directly on the ground so that any excess water can drain well. Some pot feet, or little bits of timber etc will do just to keep it clear 

kz.bn

Fairygirl said:

That looks like a very small specimen so I wouldn't put it in anything bigger just now. It does look quite deep though. You could just scrape a little bit of the soil/compost away though, and take out the little weed growing there 
It won't need anything just now in terms of food, but just water when the compost is on the dry side. If you lift the pot up, you'll be able to tell by the weight too. Just keep it somewhere slightly sheltered so that it doesn't get exposed to any extremes of weather while it's establishing. 
You can  pot it on into a bigger pot and, give it some slow release food in late winter/early spring just to keep it going, or even in autumn if it grows a lot before then. It'll take a little while to get a good root system going though.  Make sure it isn't sitting directly on the ground so that any excess water can drain well. Some pot feet, or little bits of timber etc will do just to keep it clear 

Brilliant, thank you so much. I've got rid of a little bit of the compost on top but its exposing some of the thick root? Is that right? 

Fairygirl

Ah - no, you don't want to expose the rhizome. Stick a wee bit of compost back over that! 
When it establishes [and it's looking absolutely fine just now ] each spring you'll see the new shoots emerging from that rhizome in what looks like little nodules. I have a photo I took of mine to help someone - they look like the emerging shoots of hostas, if you're familiar with those. I'll see if I can find it to show you what they look like.

As long as they aren't too deep, as @BobTheGardener describes, it'll be fine 

Fairygirl

Here you are - got it eventually!


That's what you'll see next spring. As long as though those bits aren't any deeper than in inch or so below the soil surface, it'll be fine. They emerge from the crown of the plant and develop into the stems you have just now. Each year, all being well, the plant will get bigger 

kz.bn

Fairygirl said:

Here you are - got it eventually!


That's what you'll see next spring. As long as though those bits aren't any deeper than in inch or so below the soil surface, it'll be fine. They emerge from the crown of the plant and develop into the stems you have just now. Each year, all being well, the plant will get bigger 

Fab! Thanks for all your help, look forward to hopefully having some peonies in a few years !

Mary370

Since it needs to be planted near the surface, do they get killed by frost?  Considering getting a couple next year, doing a bit of research on them first........

Fairygirl

No - they're fine @Mary370.
I keep mine slightly higher than most people would because it's so wet here and it's straight into the ground [clay]  not a border. I don't protect it over winter though, and we get plenty of that.
They probably come into growth a bit later than further south too, but we can still have lots of frosts and snow in April when growth is quite new and soft

Mary370

Thanks @Fairygirl I think I will definitely get a couple, usually hear they are divas.....but they are beautiful, I never knew they were scented either....